About 40 people attended the public hearing on the proposed Cherry County Comprehensive plan haled at the Cherry County Fairgrounds. Planning Commission members present included Wade Andrews, Sherri Bacon, Marla Shelbourn, Gary Swanson, Duane Kime and Gordon Witte. Also present was Keith Marvin, the consultant that has been guiding the commission through this process.
8 people testified at the hearing. Some wanted to encourage the planning commission members to be mindful of water quality and others wanted to make sure Cherry County doesn’t have regulations that would make production agriculture unprofitable.
Mr. Marvin stated that the comprehensive plan does not write the rules but will be a policy for those rules to be determined. More than one person stated that they wanted to see goals and objectives listed for the energy section of the plan. One person who testified referred to the 1997 document and felt that the county has not followed it and she would like to see them revisit that original plan.
The Cherry County planning commission has been working nearly 5 years on updating the county comprehensive plan, which has not been updated since 2008.
After the hearing on Thursday, the planning commission will have the opportunity to discuss and possibly adopt the plan. It would then be forwarded to the Cherry County Commissioners for a public hearing and possible adoption at a later date. If the plan is approved by the County Commissioners, the planning commission will work on zoning regulations to help accomplish the goals set forth in the plan.